The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) on Sunday said the proposal in Finance Bill 2016 to declare spectrum allocations as services would result in a tax burden of Rs.77,000 crore for operators and is likely to hurt consumers as they have to pay higher tariff rates if the load is passed on to them. " The service tax levy on spectrum assignment means that during auctions lined up for JuneJuly, where reserve price is around Rs.5.36 lakh crore, the industry will have to cough up minimum Rs.77,000 crore as a service tax. This is asubstantial financial burden on the industry. Business Standard, New Delhi, 14th March 2016

Though the sales tax authorities have the power to extend the date for filing returns, the extension should be done before the expiry of the deadline, the Supreme Court has stated in a large batch of appeals, State of Punjab vs Shreyans Industries Ltd. In these matters, the revenue authorities sent notices to the firms after the expiry of three years. The assessees objected to it arguing that the notices were sent beyond the period of assessment and, therefore, it was not permissible to issue notices after the expiry of three years and carry on with the assessment proceedings. The Punjab and Haryana High Court agreed with them. The appeal of the state government was dismissed noting that there are similar provisions in the Karnataka and Gujarat sales tax laws. The commissioner has the power to extend the date, but it should be done giving adequate reasons in writing. The judgment stated that “ once the period of limitation expires, the immunity against being subject to assessment sets…

Tax benefit to NPS can be given by exempting the pension received from income tax Much has already been written about the proposal to tax 60 per cent of the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) corpus on retirement and the subsequent rollback of this provision. As before, the entire corpus received back from EPF will continue to be completely exempt from tax. Thankfully, the proposal to exempt 40 per cent of the National Pension System (NPS) corpus is proposed to be continued. While this exemption is better than there being none at all, NPS will still remain a poor cousin compared to EPF. The government has justified the proposal to tax the withdrawal of corpus from both NPS and EPF by citing international precedents. There is some logic in this argument. The government, actually, contributes to building your retirement corpus by way of tax foregone on the amounts contributed and on the income generated on the corpus during the accumulation phase. It does so because this enables you to bu…

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said he was hopeful that the much- delayed Constitution amendment Bill on goods and services tax ( GST) would be passed in the second half of Parliament’s Budget session, in April. He also expressed hope for the bankruptcy and insolvency Bill. In the first half of the Budget session, the key Aadhaar and Real Estate Regulation Bills were passed. Jaitley said the GST and bankruptcy Bills would give a major push to India’s reform process, in an otherwise weak global economic weather. “The current session of Parliament has already seen a landmark legislation passed two days ago. And I do hope to see another two being passed in the second part of the session,” he said at the end of the three- day Advancing Asia Conference, co- hosted by India and the International Monetary Fund. The GST and bankruptcy Bills are among key reforms for India, the progress of which is being keenly watched by the global investors. The constitution amendment Bill for GST has alr…

The Lok Sabha passed the Aadhaar Bill on Friday by a voice vote but not without some members seeking clarity about the data’s privacy and confidentiality, while one member expressed fear of the potential misuse of the Aadhaar data for “mass surveillance”. Welcoming the move, Nandan Nilekani, architect of Aadhaar and former chairman of Unique Identity Authority of India said, “ Aadhaar has got bipartisan support. It started in the UPA and the government used Aadhaar for direct benefit transfer for 30 million LPG connections. This ( NDA) government has the wisdom to take it forward and make it the central pillar of its subsidy regime. With the legal issue settled, it could be used for transforming government, as well as transforming business.” While moving the Bill for discussion and passage, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the primary focus was usage of money belonging to the Consolidated Fund of India to deliver targeted subsidies to only the deserving, which will help plug leakages…